Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/166

Subsequently, however, as the caravan was passing a village cemetery, he noticed that the roof of a burial-vault^[1] had fallen in, and that the bones of the dead were exposed. Of the skulls some were black and brown, others white. “See!” he cried, “even after death there is a difference between persons of good stock and those of meaner birth, the skulls of the former are all white, and those of the latter of a darker colour.” Some days after he had made this remark, the travellers approached their destination. Fixed over the city gate were the heads of men who had been put to death for hideous crimes. Birds of prey, insects, and the action of sun and rain combined, had completely bleached the skulls. “Look up, O Emir,” shouted one of the company, “those skulls up there must each of them have belonged to a person, like yourself, of noble family.”

“A certain sultan had two wazirs, a Jew and a Christian, who were jealous of one another. The sultan one day questioned whether it were better to be humbly born, but well-educated, or to belong to some good family, however poor. The Jew stood up for race while the Christian took the side of education, saying that he himself had trained a cat to do the work of a good servant. “If your Majesty will let him show his cat,” said the Jew, “I shall demonstrate, in my turn, that good birth is above training.”